Insurance is protection at a price, and actuaries employed by large national insurance companies use data to set the price for that protection by balancing costs of coverage against risks to be covered. When new data become available, actuaries must evaluate the impact of policy adjustments prompted by the data on the cost of future claims and determine if new pricing is needed. One type of insurance product is a child rider, a low-cost addition to traditional insurance policies that provides a death benefit for all children in a family under age 21. The cost of such a policy is sensitive to changes in life-expectancy data. Using calculators and spreadsheets, an actuary will create mathematical models, calculate the likelihood of events and use the results to make practical decisions regarding the price of the child rider. Once the necessary changes to the product price have been made, the actuary must brief the company's insurance agents so they are able to explain it to their customers.

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